Saturday, December 31, 2016

Time to move along. Winter is “over” in my mind even though we will have four months of snow. It was so exciting to look outside at 5:15 p.m. tonight and have it still be a bit light out. Spring is preparing her arrival even if she is on a delayed flight to Wisconsin.

Here’s a fun little spring card I made. I used a free commercial card that i receved in a pack for a kick off on the idea. I really should take a photo of it. People often ask where I get my ideas from. They come from everywhere, clothing, decorations in restaurants, a cieling in a restaurant, a picture and now this card.

here’s my take on it with what i have on hand. . The zebras look like they are die cut but they are not, i just traced around the bottoms with a distress marker and used a damp paint bursh to soften the lines a bit and make them stand out more. Here is the original card, isn’t it cute?

it was fun and now i’m ready to move on from snow flakes. The kit was fun and i love the Lawn Fawn chamois stamp cleaner that came with it. I used every little scrap from this kit i cut the little snowflake candies with a 3/8” circle punch and used a stylus and rubber mat to make the little embellishments. The snow man image and the die cut snow flakes are MFT. The lower pink card is all from the kit except the sentiment which is MFT and Judith teeny snowflakes on the banner.

Thursday, December 29, 2016

I’ve been pondering this party theme for a few days now and while working with my January card kit from Simon Says and trying to get my ten cards out of the kit, I saw my Banner Die. Perfect for a party. It all came together in just a few minutes with the Project Bin Sentiment and cake. I had purchased the Blushing Bride pink embossing powder last year and it worked so nicely on the dark green cardstock. After adding a strip of the dotted paper that came in the kit to the bottom it looked as if it needed something to tie the dark and the dots together. I went to my ribbon stash and nothing looked quite right and then i spotted my container of Washi tape. Aha!!! It’s exactly what was needed to give this dark background a more festive look. The Party theme is SSS Monday challenge this week.

I’m really appreciating the color challenges which really pose a challenge for me. I enjoy thinking about how much of each color i want to use and which color to be the background. This isn’t quite the colors for the MFT Color Challenge 60 as I have no peach bellini but it’s going on my list. I did have this piece of light coral though and i used that in place of the peach bellini. The little centers of the flowers are my sequin dies from MFT that i have gotten so much use out of. I also used the Stitched Basic die to cut the main panel. I used a punch to get my scallops done in the soft gray. The sentiment is MFT BIrthday Sentiments. Love those fat words for card fronts.

i loved this sentiment from the Project Bin and couldn’t wait to design a card with it. This is for my cousin in FL. she is ten years younger than me and I loved her the first day i set eyes on her. We have talked a lot this past year as she had been in the ministry for several years before she went home to take care of her dad. She is a very special person to me. I love this Memory Box die also and it was perfect for this sentiment. I used Wink of Stella on all the hearts and popped up the entire panel for some interest. If you need some really unique and very real sentiments visit the Project Bin, you won’t be disappointed. All other items are from Simon Says.

This sentiment stamp from the Project Bin is so great. I was wondering how I would use it and it’s what made me purchase this particular set. Well…..I have a set of stamps given to me by a friend that I have never yet inked. The fancy dresses are perfect with this sentiment. Aren’t they just so cute hanging across the bottom like that. Using scraps from the heart card I just posted a bit ago. I like the added interest rounding the corners has on hand made cards. Not for always but sometimes you just want that little touch of imperceptible softness.

Sometimes when a card is completly finished i look at it and say….I wish I would have done this or that to it. That’s how I felt when i picked up this card to photograph it. I wish I had embossed the vellum background. It’s okay and my brother won’t even care and he doesn’t save my handiwork he just likes hearing from me so it’s okay but to satisfy the perfectionist that hides inside me I would have liked that piece dry embossed with a large dots folder.

Can you see the pretty shimmer of the snowflakes. That little cube of delightful came in the kit. It is called Rich and Radiant Delicata Pigment Ink #380 white shimmer. And shimmer it does. I chose a light neutral gray to stamp it on but i tried it on a piece of black and wow does it light up. Love it. It’s what made me say YES to recieving this kit. That and the really pretty little pack of sequins and snowflakes. gorgeous.

There is always that pause between Christmas and New Years and it always seems a long pause to me. Maybe it’s because we are so very busy our minds are a blur for four weeks and then Gilbert takes vacation week and we have nothing to do. There’s not a whole lot to do in the area of the frozen tundra that are close to home. The wind has been wild making outdoor activities for us non-exsistant. Not that there aren’t those die-hard winter lovers that go skiing etc but we have long passed that stage in life. And the week drags on just waiting for New Year’s Eve and New Year’s day when we can hike up our boots and start life all over again with a whole fresh year.

Winter is very much upon us and the card kit from Simon this month is all about snowflakes and a cool color palette and I am enjoying this do nothing day we have chosen to be a stamping day combined with listening to good ol’ Chet Atkins and friends picking and playing guitar on Pandora. Does life get better than this???

For these two cards i used the MFT Blueprints 4 and a piece from 5 . It’s interesting how rotating a sketch can make a card look completly different. Thanks for stopping by. Always glad to have you.

Image used is a Stampin Up sweet image. Can you see the acrylic banner that I stamped the senitment on? I wanted to pull that “icy” feel out as this is going to my brother in Texas. The crown strip is from a blue vellum piece that came in the kit. On the pink card I used some Judith stamps to stamp over the subtle background paper with hearts and flowers. The heart is covered with glass bead gel that dried. Thanks to friend Angela Bode for turning me on to that. It is so fun but does take quite a while to dry. Make some pieces ahead and they will be dry and ready to use when the mood strikes. I am entering this into Simon’s Anything goes Wednesday challenge and the pink one in MFT sketch challene 313.

Tuesday, December 27, 2016

That really sounds like the packers are coming to town. oh wait, we need to go to them over in Green Bay. Here is my last card for last years ABC challenges. Just think i got all the way to F before I bombed out on the challenges. Truthfully i think it was really fun to do it this way. Now I can start on all my January birthdays and there are a TON. I have two brothers and my mom with January birthdays, my best friend, both of her kids, my mom’s sister and three of ther kids, that’s just the beginning. I’m glad my January Simon kit came today.

On to the Green and Gold. Simple is as simple does. I had purchased this green prefolded cardstock and envies last year at Michaels. They are 5 x 7 and i was thinking I could cut them down to traditional hand made card size but with the size of these snowflakes and sentiment it worked nicely to keep it at 5 x 7. And there you have it. Thanks for hanging in there with me as i acheived my goal. I now have 27 cards ready for next Christmas. They are stamped and signed on the back and they all have envies and sentiments on the inside. I am feeling so good!! I’m going to enter this one last card into Simon’s Wednesday challenge to make it shine or sparkle.

H is for hat and i so wanted to make this last year and then I completly forgot about my crazy birds and their costumes. Using up some more of that Kaiser craft paper from 2010. I loved the shimmery red berries so round and plump just like this little guy. I colored and die cut him. Added dimension with his eyes, beak and wing as a layer and the top bow of the package. The package and bird are grounded by the shadow dies I recently got at MFT. There was that 40% off sale and I wasn’t sure i would use those but i have used the full set already so i think it was a good pruchase. I am entering this into Simon's November Work it Wednesday challenge to use dies. I went searching in my ribbon box and found the perfect ribbons to add a bit of interest to this cute little card. Isn’t he totally adorable. I used my black pen to curve his little smile up a bit otherwise he was looking kind of mad about the holidays and all.

Isn’t this so adorable. Angie if you come reading this, I have made this for Melissa, Molly Moo. I am also going to send the stamp to her. So this is totally NOT my style. A friend of mine has appointed herself to purchase me all the stamps she thinks are cute from rummage sales. I had to tell her to STOP. While I appreciate her doing it, I simply have no room for stamps i do not love. This has been hanging around for a couple of years and I inked it up onto a foam piece and then water colored it. I tried to spray it with hair spray to keep the colors from rubbing off on my fingers and when i did that the colors kind of ran but i like how it adds to the homespun look of this cute little moo-moo angel. In keeping with the stitching on her wings and dress I used a pierced fish tail die for the border on my sentiment. She was holding a hear that i cut off and replaced with a sponge snowflake.

oo-oo- I wanted to use that stitched border die that i just got from MFT. It worked so nicely for this card and gave it a bit of character. I love that the double stitched line pierces on both sides and you can use whichever piece you want to. No stamping except on the inside. Die cut surgery to get the Wishes separated from it’s partner named Warm. My jewels are rhinestone bling in dark blue and it’s done!! That was simple. I know i will get a lot of use out of that set of border dies. The snowflakes are from MFT also.

I ran into the same problem for Kissing. The only kissing images i have are those mice under the candy canes. Hmmm…time for the thinking cap. This covers it nicely and even has the word kiss in the sentiment. MFT blueprints 6 and sketch. I have all my sketches printed out and in a binder and when i need one, i decide on the blueprints i’m going to use and then flip to my sketch binder. The candy strip is a satiny ribbon and i added faux stitching to the curved layer. The buttons are cardstock.

L??? Anything that starts with L….besides light my brain just didn’t compute. I chose Laurel as in Laurel Wreath. I’m not even sure what that is but in this case it is the wreath I made.

Just to change things up a bit I went with a square card using my Blueprints # 3 and sketch from MFT. The wreath and design are from Prickley Pear and I’m not sure who’s dies those are. Maybe Whimsey? I ask with a puzzled frown on my head.

Thanks for going through all these with me. You make me smile.

okay, if that’s not a laurel wreath then i go with L for layers and i got that covered.

Hmmm, the only Christmasy mice i have is the one with the two mice and their candy canes but that is so last year as i have used it many times. I could do that but then i remembered my MFT Autumn mice and figured i could do a little surgery and come up with a Christmas card.

Remember back in the fall this little guy on the right was carrying a bushel of apples. This worked out really well. And as long as i’m showing you this intricate die, have you been living under a rock, as I have???? There is this very cool way to get all those little bits and pieces out without poking or using a brush. Are you ready for this? Cut your die out like you always do. Leave it in the die and grab yourself 4 folded in half pieces of cheap dryer sheets. (like Bounce only the cheapies ones) Place your die on there cut side down and run it through with the same cutting plates you always use. All the bits and pieces stick to the sheet. No joke! It is like MAGIC. i am so impressed. This picture shows three different dies that i did this way. You can peel away and the top dryer sheet and fold it inside and do this again and again with the same sheets til they are all fool. I kid you not, this is too good to keep to myself!!

Anything goes, well that’s always fun. I needed that after all those “restrictions” Let’s see, do i even know how to make a card anymore without a jumping off point? I bought this fabulous Memory Box die at the Vendor show. talk about an easy card. And can’t you even see this as a wedding card for those folks who live, you know, in rural Wisconsin, where all the girls go deer hunting right along with their man. It’s true! Not me though, my man doesn’t go either. He said he saw enough guns and shooting in Vietnam.

O is for overlay. I had this sweet white and kraft piece in that Kaiser Craft pack and it said 2010 on it. uhhhmmmm, that’s a while back. Anyway, a little cutting away made it useful. Another piece of vellum from , yep, Princess Judy. It was perfect for this. A bit of color. To give it a little life after putting the vellum over the kraft i thought the white birds and sentiments would brighten it up a bit. A very simple card to make. I did faux stitching in red across the top about 1/4 inch down. I adhered the vellum with medium matte gel and it came apart, went back to a glue pen. Worked perfect.

Monday, December 26, 2016

Paper piecing. It took me a long time to do this. Why did i choose this image for this challenge? I’ve always thought this would be pretty paper pieced but never wanted to take the time. Likely won’t do it again but i so love how it turned out. . Next up is Overlay for O. i’m having fun with these no time limit challenges. My own time limit is to try and get them done before I leave on Wednesday. I don’t have to post them to the site as all the challenges have been long closed, I am just enjoying the jump off idea for the start of a card.

Hope all had a wonderful Christmas or whichever holiday you celebrate. We had small family time and enjoyed it immensely. Thanksgiving is usually our biggest holiday gathering.

Sorry this turned out a bit blurry. I cut this image from a piece of designer paper and used spray adhesive on it. To add some sparkle i used the gold cord and also gold sparkly embossing powder. My cardstock was some i picked up at Michaels marked 70% off. I love the subtle embossed snowflakes on the Kraft. I learned something by purchasing two packs of pre-folded cardstock there. From now on, I am going to spend some time to cut and score and even add embossed panels to some cardstock. It makes it so easy to grab and create. i never realized how eliminating those steps at card making time saves so much time when I sit down to create. I know when Vicky P creates her ten cards from the Simon kit she cuts and scores all the papers first off. Gonna try that. Thanks for stopping by. Entering as 4th entry into Simon Says Wednesday Make it Sparkle challenge.

I’m playing catch up with the ABC Christmas challenge just to get a head start on next years cards. This was made for Simon’s challenge to add sparkle. I added gold embossing to my ornament strings and also the holly leaves in the left bottom corner. It needed a touch more and IRL that shiny corner piece matches a bit better. I also used a sparkly gold gel pen to outline all the swirls on the tree. Image from Creative Imaginations.

Simon said Use sparkle. I used that Glitter Pen from Viva again to dress up her little jingle bells on her hair bow and legging ribbons. I added a touch to the top of the ornament also. The Kristina Werner sentiment die has some wink of stella on it but i can never get that to show up in the photo.

Culling out of the all inclusive post I did earlier to enter some of these cards into Simon’s Wednesday challenge of Make it Sparkle. I thought this Santa needed a little sparkle and I used my Viva Glitter Pen to add drops of sparkles on all the stars behind him and used glittery embroidery thread for the tag ribbon. He is so cute. It is a CTMH image.

I missed so many of the ABC Christmas Challenges this year. I’m still in holiday card making mood as i still have all my papers etc out and in front of may face. I decided to work backwards and catch up with the challenges. I am currently working on P for paper piecing. I have already posted my Y and Z. I will list the challenges below. This will give me a great head start on my next year’s cards. I never seem to have the time for stamping once November hits it’s just go, go, go. With what I had left over from last year’s cards and what i have now completed I am 17 cards ahead for next year’s sixty plus cards I mail out. I really need these ABC Christmas challenges to keep things fresh. I can hardly stand to make duplicate cards. Although i did purchase a kit to make ten identical cards at the Vendor show. What was I thinking? Well the price was good and it included stamps and lots of die cuts for all ten cards. Couldn’t go wrong for the price.

Z~zoom

Y~Yikes

X~Criss Cross my card has X’s on the designer paper like cross stitch

W~Wishing I used my Simon Wishing die

V~Vertical long snowman card. I used stencils

U~under the pile (anything in your stash more than a year old) found this cute santa image for a tag

T~ is for Two Two different types of pinecones

S~sew well you know i don’t do that, i added faux stitching with my wonky stitched die

R~rip it just tore a little strip of paper

Q~Quick layout I always go to my MFT blueprints for quick layouts. This was BluePrints #6 ~~Don’t ask how i got that top piece to look like that. It turned out really cool but i was just trying to emboss over Gesso and it wouldn’t take and this is what i ended up with after five times of trying to fix it. So while it was a quick layout it certainly wasn’t a quick card.

Friday, December 23, 2016

Admission time. I thought i had enough holiday card making and then i zoomed around and cleaned my stamp space. hmmm…lots of Christmas card scraps, then my daughter called and said she was bringing her ten year old niece along with her tomorrow for our Christmas day. ZOOM some more and throw a card together. I had this pretty angel sticker sheet lying out (gifted by Princess Judy a couple of years ago) and the pretty blue piece was already cut out for me too. I stuck the angel down, added the top piece, added the sticker snowflakes and that was it. ZOOM-Done. For the inside i stamped the sentiment and frame in Bliss Blue from SU and it was a little too blue for the decorative card stock strip. Because i used my MISTI i simply inked the sentiment and frame up with some Certainly Celerey (SU) and i got a better color match to the decorative strip. How many times that MISTI has saved me. Well worth the price for sure. Now tomorrow morning i will need to ZOOM to the Dollar General and see if i can pick up a quick little gift for that ten year old. This card is made for the ABC challenge Z is for ZOOM.

Sunday, December 18, 2016

ABC Christmas Challenge for the month of December is Y for Yikes and Z for zooming. YIKES is right. Yikes because here it is almost Christmas and I never even used all the new stuff i bought for my cards this year. Yikes because here it is almost Christmas and I never even used all the new stuff i bought for my cards LAST year. Yikes because i wanted to do this very simple card and two hours later it is finally completed. I couldn’t figure out how to get the glitter onto those snowflakes and then onto the cards. I think my brain is worn out. I thought i was working with double stick paper but i was only using one stick side, i tried spraying the backs with adhesive and then the front would hold the glitter. I made a mistake and tried to use embossing glitter and that didn’t work at all. YIKES i am sick of working on this so called simple card. But to my credit, i prevailed, and here it is!! What i ended up doing was using some one sided sticky paper. I cut out the stars using my new MFT snowflake dies. Peeled the backs off and poured the glitter onto the sticky side, burnished with a paper over them and a pop sickle stick. Sprayed the backs with spray adhesive, stuck them on and added a sticker border. The sentiment from MFT embossed nicely with Tsukineko #02 Silver. This is the best shiny silver embossing powder i have used. I love the shiny embossing it gives. I had some other stuff that embossed kind of gray metallic instead of silver and I love this one. Thanks for stopping by.

Monday, December 5, 2016

today, becuase it’s already 9:30 p.m. i am going to post a whole slew of cards into one post. Thank you for understanding. I’ve been working on my feet helping my dear husband cook for 150 seasonal and regular employees. It’s part of the holiday season for us but i am TIRED! And we get to do it all again every day except Sunday’s for two more weeks. It used to be fun and i enjoy the people but now i’m just tired when i get home. then i get to cook some more for us. I’m ready to retire.

Anyway, i stamp when i can and then i will post when i can but they all may be in one LOOOOOOOONG posting. Thanks for not caring about that.

I made eight of this cedar spray card after watching a tutorial by Lydia Fiedler. You use real plants from around your area. Well, uhm, it’s winter around our area and there ain’t a whole lot of green to be found. Aha!! There are cedar trees. When I pressed these through the Big Shot, OMW, the room smelt divine. All that cedary aroma…mmmmm smells like Christmas to me. Here’s the link to see how it’s done. Leave Lydia some love after watching it if you would.

Next up, several more similar but different cards. I used two colors of Brusho and sprayed the water paper card stock to spread the color. Whoaaaaa…that stuff is INTENSE. I got all these backgrounds and more out of a couple of little sprinklings. Wowsers!

Then the others that I was working on using up a couple of packs of Christmas 6x6 pads from 2010. There’s a lot of designs in one pack of those innocent looking 6x6 and 8x8 packs. I’ll be doing Christmas from these packs for four more years I think. For these I CASED Vicki Papaioannou from Clips and Cuts blog. These were her ideas using the Simon Says Stamp December kit. I used her styles but with my own version of products. What you can’t see for some reason is the versamark snowflakes i stamped all over the red background on the first card. Just use your imagination and pretend you see them. That’s it, i’m out of here, good night. I hope we all survive through Christmas. --I need to get these out in the mail.

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Welcome. Thank you for visiting my blog. It starts out to be about stamping cards as that is one of my favorite things to do but you might find references to nutrition and good recipes and even just everyday happenings.

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About Me

This Picture is from Oct 2009
I live in a small town and I love life. I have a natural ability for cooking and can just throw things together and make them taste good. I love to cook for anyone and everyone. Baking artisan breads is one of my most satisfying past times.